Valada

Camino Portugués · Camino Portugués de la Costa

Distrito de SantarémPortugal

Here Camino Portugués and Camino Portugués de la Costa converge. It is one of the points where the pilgrim shares the way with those arriving by another route.

From the Portuguese valada, derived from the Latin vallata 'palisaded, land enclosed by fence': a riverside hamlet that took its name from the defensive or agricultural enclosure that bounded it in medieval times.

The toponym is a common noun used as a proper name: any land enclosed by vallum 'palisade, fence' could be a vallata. In the Tagus marshes, the valadas served to demarcate floodable plots and protect livestock from seasonal floods. The hamlet of Valada preserves in its name that medieval agricultural function —⁠still visible in the dykes and floodgates that regulate the river's entry into the rice paddies⁠—⁠.

Evolution of the name

  1. vallata late Latin 6th — 9th century
  2. Valada medieval Portuguese from the 12th century

Reflections, to the letter

Facing the Tagus, the first thing that shields Valada is its dike, and that is where the name hides. The word comes from 'valado', the walled earthen embankment that bounded medieval fields; the dikes that still hold back the river's floods were raised on those old valados. Beside the whitewashed church, an 1881 plaque dates the work. The walker who climbs the dike to look out over the rice paddies is standing, quite literally, on the thing that named the place.

Languages of origin

Themes

Origin status

confirmed

Sources

  • Machado, J.P. — Dicionário Onomástico Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa

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Camino Portugués

  1. ··· toward Santiago
  2. Alvaiázere
  3. Tomar
  4. Atalaia
  5. Azinhaga
  6. Golegã
  7. Santarém
  8. Valada
  9. Azambuja
  10. Vila Franca de Xira
  11. Sacavém
  12. Lisboa